Fang: A Maximum Ride Novel
by Xx-Erin-xX-AthrunxCagallifan
Summary: My version of the sixth book. Contains excerpt of the actual book. Rest is my invention. The flock are in Africa to help out the CSM, there they meet a mysterious scientist and recieve a cryptic message and Angel makes a deadly prophecy about Fang.
1. Good Start

**Okay guys here is the first part of my version of Fang. Okay I don't own Maximum Ride obviously and the first part of this is the actual excerpt from the book up until the line "This mission was off to a good start" okay? Alright then. You'll have to wait a while between updates because I want to finish Highschool Ride but I really want to have this done before the sixth book comes out okay? Excerpt courtesy of MoreThanHer.  
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**Right, let's begin.  
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I'm a girl of extremes. When I love something, I'm like a puppy dog (without all the licking). When I'm cranky, I'm a wasp (like a whole hive of 'em). And when I'm angry, I'm a mother bear with a predator after her cubs: dangerous.

I say this because lately my life has been all about the extremes. Like right now, for instance. I was soaring twenty-thousand feet in the air with the five people I love most in the world — and no, we weren't on a plane, hang-gliding, or hot air ballooning. We preferred to use good old-fashioned wings. The technology's been around for eons.

If you've ever dreamed you could fly, I can confirm that it's all that and better. Even if you're desperately flying through a subway tunnel to save your life, it's still off the charts. But today, flying over Africa ... it was as good as it ever gets. Maybe the best part was that for the first time in a dog's age, we weren't on the run from madmen. We were on a mission — to do good.

"Max!" Iggy called over to me. "Why did they name themselves Chad? I mean, Chad. It's like naming a while country Biff or Trey. I don't get it."

"Ig, don't be ignorant," I scoffed. "It's not like all the people there named themselves."

"Why not? We named ourselves," Nudge noted, as if I needed to be reminded that we were raised in a lab under the supervision of science geeks.

"Only 'cause we're special." I gestured to her twelve-foot wingspan. "Hey, check that out!" I pointed to a Martian-like rock formation in the distance.

Fang turned his head and gave me one of his classic half smiles — you know, like the kind of smile Mona Lisa would have had if she were a guy. A teenage guy with longish scruffy hair, dark eyes, and a leather jacket. Mmmm.

The whole trip had been as exhilarating as one of Fang's killer smiles. Even the hundreds of miles of shifting, mysterious desert dunes had been amazing. We're world travelers and all — we've lived in wilds as extreme as Death Valley and Antarctica — but there was something downright otherworldly about what I'd seen below as we crossed over — oh, crap, I'd forgotten the names of all of the different countries.

"Mauritania, Algeria, Mali, Niger, and Chad together are about sixty-eight percent desert," Angel recited, reading my mind. Literally. She's powerful like that.

"Whatever. It's too much freaking desert," Angel's brother, Gazzy, complained. I wouldn't mind seeing a few cows chomping away on some grass right about now."

"A-plus-plus on the geography quiz, Angel. Gazzy, Iggy, extra credit when you check your attitudes at the door." Even without parents, somehow I'd picked up the language. Seems to work when you're the leader. "Listen, I know some of you are a little cranky from the long flight, but this is our chance to finally help people. Real people," I emphasized, as if we'd grown up in a plastic bubble or something. Well, we kind of had. Do dog crates in labs count?

"Real people," Fang clarified. "As in, not a bunch of whack-job scientists."

"Yup. Did it ever occur to you guys," I continued grandly, "That when we were told we has to save the world, it might have actually meant saving people — like, one at a time? Sending a message around the world about people in need is great and all, but actually feeding people, giving people medical help and stuff? We've never done that before. I mean, this could be it, guys. Our destiny."

"Max is right," Angel agreed, in a very un-Angel-like manner. We didn't see eye-to-eye on much these days.

"Word on the street is that you have to save the world, Max," Iggy reminded me. "The rest of us? Not so much."

Twit. Always trying to take the easy way out.

Not Fang, though. "Hey, Max, wherever you go to save the world — I will follow ..." He did the killer half-smiling thing. "Mother Teresa."

My stomach flip-flopped as if I'd folded my wings and plunged into freefall. Hello, Max the Puppy.

I had exactly five second to enjoy sainthood before I caught sight of three black dots in the distance — and they appeared to be moving straight toward us.

Looked like Mama Bear's cubs were in danger. And you know what that meant:

Bye-bye, Saint Max. Time to be a hellion again.

"Incoming!" I shouted to my flock. "Down, down, down!"

Fast moving object directed towards the flock usually belong to one of three categories: bullets, mutant beings with a taste for bird kids, or vehicles hired by an evil megalomaniac wanting to kidnap us and use our powers. Which might explain why I was working on the assumption that the three black dots meant one thing and one thing only: imminent death.

"Max! Relax!" Fang managed to stop me before I could execute my dive. "I think those are the CSM cargo planes."

It was the Coalition to Stop the Madness (CSM), the activist group my non-winged mom was involved with, that had asked us to go on this humanity relief mission to Chad and to help publicize the work they were doing there. And what with our previous adventures helping them combat global warming and ocean pollution, we were slowly being turned from feral, scavenging outlaws on the lam into Robin Hood do-gooders. Meanwhile, I was still supposed to save the world at some point. My calendar was full, full, full.

So full that I had forgotten that this was the part of out journey where we were supposed to meet with the CSM planes so we could be guided into the refugee camp.

I gave Fang a thank-you-for-saving-me-from-myself look. When his eyes met mine, I shivered down to my sneakered toes.

Gazzy called over to me, "I can't see anything!"

"I can't see anything either!" Iggy complained.

"I'm rolling my eyes, Ig." I had to tell him that because he couldn't see me do it, what with his blindness and all.

"No, there's, like dust clouds below," Gazzy clarified.

I glanced down, and sure enough — the blurry endlessness of sand was even more blurry.

"Not dust devils," Fang said. His dark feathers were covered with a layer of dust, and grit was caked around his eyes and mouth.

"No." I peered downward again.

"Just then angel said, "Uh-oh," which is always enough to make my blood run cold. In the next second, I focused sharply on a few dark specks at the front of the dust clouds. One of the dark specks raised a tiny dark toothpick.

This time I knew for sure I wasn't overreacting.

"Guns!" I shouted. "They've got guns!"

"Quick! Up!" Fang shouted, just as the first bullets strafed the air around me with ominous hisses.

I angled myself upward, only to see the shiny silver underbelly of one of the CSM planes, now flying right above us. It was pressing downward — the rough landing strip was maybe a quarter mile away.

"Drop back!" I yelled. We all went vertical as the planes continued to come down practically on our heads. To escape from the bullets, we'd had to fly up right under them. The engines were way too close — the noise was deafening.

"Watch it!" I yelled as one of the plane's landing gear almost hit Iggy. "Drop down! Drop down!" Bullets are bad, but getting mushed by a landing gear, toasted by jet engine exhaust, or sucked into the front of an engine were all much less fixable.

I could now make out the sun-browned faces of the men on ... oh, geez, were those camels? The men continued to aim their rifles at us and I felt a bullet actually whiz by my hair. In about half a second, my brain had processed the following thoughts lightning fast:

1) A bullet hitting the fuel tank on a plane: not a good situation.

2) Slowing down not good: slow + bird kids = drop like rocks.

3) Speeding up not good: fast bird kids + faster planes + getting flattened.

4) The only choice was to go on the offensive.

Fortunately, I'm very comfortable with being offensive — at least on the not-infrequent occasions when someone's trying to gun down my flock.

"Dive!" I shouted. "Knock 'em down!"

I tucked my wings flat against my back and began to race groundward like a rocket. At this speed, these shooters would need radar and a heat tracer to land a bullet on me. I could actually see the whites of their eyes now, which were widening in surprise.

"Hai-yah!" I screamed — just for fun, really — as I swung my feet down and came to a screeching halt by smashing my heels right into the rider's back. He flew off the camel, rifle pinwheeling through the air, and felt the joy of being airborne himself for about three seconds before he landed right in front of his pal's camel.

"Get the rest!" I ordered the flock. "Free the beasts!"

There was about ten of these armed riders — no match for six hot, angry bird kids. We were used to dodging bullets; these guys were not used to aiming at fast-moving flying mutants. And the bonuses of being aloft are infinite: Snatching the rifle from the grip of a maniacal shooter isn't as hard as you might think when you're coming from above and behind.

Iggy flew in sideways and smacked one guy right off his camel, and Gazzy folded his wings around another's face, causing him to panic and fall. I grabbed a gun and use it like a baseball bat, neatly clipping one guy in the gut, knocking him right off his ride. Unfortunately, I didn't rise in time.

Which meant that for the first time in bird kid history, I got plowed into by a panicky galloping camel — with no sense of humor. Its head hit me in the stomach, and I flipped over its neck, landing hard on the saddle.

"Awesome move, Max!" I heard Nudge call from somewhere behind me. Wasn't she busy helping to take these guys out?

My Indiana Jones moment lasted about a second before I was lurched off the beast. Just as my feet hit the sand, I managed to grab a rein and hang on for dear life.

My wings were useless — there was no room to stretch them out — and my ankles were literally sanded raw before I was able to pull myself up hand over hand and eventually clamber back onto the saddle.

"Whoa, Nelly!" I croaked, gagging on dust. I gripped the saddle with my knees and pulled back on the reins.

This camel did not speak English, apparently. It stretched its neck and ran fast.

"Up and away, Max!" Fang yelled. I dropped the reins, popped to me feet on top of the saddle, and jumped hard, snapping out my wings. And just like that, I became lighter than air, stronger than steel ... and faster than a speeding camel.

I watch it race off, terrified, toward the nearest village. Someone was about to inherit a traumatized camel.

This mission was off to a good start.

--

"I'm glad you're all okay!" Mum sighed, looking us all over as we folded in our wings and shook away the adrenaline from our fight. I smiled as Mum gave me another hug.

"We're fine, as Fang told you," I sighed, hugging her back. I would never, never get tired of getting hugs from my Mum. Until recently, I didn't even know I had a Mum so I think its reasonable.

"Just making sure," Mum said. Then she smiled.

"Max, Max, Max!" Total shouted, bounding over to us excitedly. Total is our little Scottish talking dog. We acquired him in New York City quite a while back and somehow he latched onto us. But regardless of his annoying talking, he's a great dog.

"Yeah?" I replied looking down at him.

"We found your dress!" Total practically yipped, bouncing up into Angel's arms. She hugged him close and I felt warmth in my heart, momentarily forgetting that Angel was a little demon with an unhealthy desire to lead the Flock and take over the world.

"Oh… yay," I said without the slightest trace of enthusiasm. I heard Fang stifling his laughter and vowed not to go near him for a while. Oh and about the dress. You see Total and Akila, the malamute he is in love with, are getting married and I'm the maid of honour. Yay for me. Fang couldn't wait to see me in a poufy dress but I was going to get out of this any way I could. I was so _not_ wearing a dress full stop.

"What colour?" Angel asked.

"Pink," Total replied and Gazzy and Iggy cracked up. Fang swallowed his laughter when I sent him a dark look. He gave me his most innocent face and then a smile that sent my world rocketing in a large circle. My cheeks heated up and I turned away and looked at Mum.

"So, down to business," I said.

"Ah, right," Mum replied. She clasped her hands. "Everybody come with me. There's somebody you have to meet."

We followed Mum around the plane that we were standing near where some men were unloading crates. There was one man among them with blonde hair, blue eyes who was wearing a business suit and not doing any work. He seemed to be supervising.

When he caught sight of us his face lit with that guarded curiosity that all the good scientists we'd met looked at us with. My alarms still went off at the scientist look and I glanced at Fang and he nodded: we had to be on guard.

"Guys this is Dr Hans Gunther-Hagen," Mum introduced as he came over to us. Ah, he's German, wonderful. I'd had nothing but good experiences when I'd gone to Germany. That's sarcasm by the way people. "He's our benefactor, the reason we're able to do our research here."

"So these are the amazing bird kids?" Dr Hans asked.

"Yes they are," Mum replied smiling at us proudly. "This is my daughter Max and her flock Fang, Iggy, Nudge, Gazzy, Angel and Total."

Dr Hans smiled kindly at us, giving us a curious look over as though hoping we had our wings out. Sorry buddy but you're out of luck. We might show them to you later though.

"It's wonderful to meet you," Dr Hans said.

"I would say likewise but I'm not like that," I replied. Dr Hans looked taken aback but he shook his head.

"You have a weird name," Nudge said.

"It's German," Fang whispered.

"Oh," Nudge and Gazzy murmured together. Dr Hans chuckled and looked at my Mum.

"Valencia, would you please show the kids to where we're staying? I have more work to do and I'm sure they'd like to rest."

"Of course," Mum replied. "Come on guys." We said goodbye to Dr Hans- that guy made me so nervous for some reason but maybe that was just my wonderful friend paranoia speaking- and Mum led us off.

_Max?_ The Voice was back to give me some advice. Yay.

_Yeah?_ I thought back.

_Be wary of anybody new that you meet here._

_Thanks for that, I was going to be._ The Voice didn't respond to my smart-aleckness so I rolled my eyes and Fang came over, slipping his arm around my waist and tugging me into his side. I closed my eyes, enjoying his presence.

"Voice?" he asked. How did he know? I don't know. It's like he can read my mind.

"Yeah," I replied. "It was being a nuisance. Much like yourself actually."

Fang chuckled and my heart fluttered. "I can be more of a nuisance if you want." The tone of his voice gave me butterflies and I tried hard not to blush.

"You shut up," I hissed slapping his arm lightly. Fang held me a little tighter and I felt okay. I could live out this stay in Africa, as long as Fang was with me the whole way.


	2. Ahem, I'm your girlfriend nimrod!

**Merry Christmas guys!!! I like this chapter, it has some faxy goodness in it for your chrissy present! Hope you like it, I do ^.^  
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The greatest thing about helping out other people is the fact that we had somewhere to stay. A roof over our heads. Beds to sleep in. And hot showers. Mmm. The hot shower thing? I could so get used to that.

"Oh my god, I feel so much better," I sighed coming out of the bathroom and passing Iggy the soap on my way. "All the dirt, Ig, I mean it." Yeah, I can be bossy but hey, I'm the Mum and I have to act like it.

"Wow, you actually have skin-coloured skin," Fang teased. I glowered at him playfully and he lifted his arms hopefully. I sighed melodramatically but decided to put up with having to sit with Fang. I sat on his lap and he wrapped his arms around me.

"I was convinced that you were turning grey," I told Fang playing with his long fringe. "Your hair hasn't been black for a while." He scowled at me, but his eyes were glistening.

"I'm surprised that I don't have any grey hairs, having to deal with you all the time."

I flicked Fang's ear but he caught my hand and kissed it lightly, sending an electric thrill through my body.

"Ew gross!" Gazzy complained. "Can you guys cut the lovey-dovey stuff out? I think I'm going to be sick!"

"Sorry kid," Fang replied, pulling me tighter to him and nuzzling his face against my neck, making me blush. "When you're older you'll understand."

"I don't think I want to," Gazzy replied.

"I think it's cute," Nudge said and Angel nodded. They were playing cards on the coffee table and Gazzy had some contraption on the floor where he and Iggy had been working on it until I'd made Iggy go and have a shower.

As I looked at the Flock now I felt happy because we were safe at the moment. Right now nothing was bugging us and we could relax. I had Fang with me and as long as I had him I could do anything.

"Maybe we should take a walk," I whispered to Fang while Gazzy made retching sounds.

"Yeah, he is kind of spoiling things," Fang replied, shooting a pretend annoyed look at Gazzy. Man the boy had come of out his shell in the last few weeks. I think it might have something to do with the fact that I had finally agreed to be with him and given in to the feelings that I had been pretending I didn't have.

I jumped up from Fang and took his hand and we walked outside. It was nice out here. The people stared at us and everything but it was only curiosity. I was sure none of them actually wanted to kill us.

"Hi kids!"

We looked over to see John Abate helping carry some boxes into a hut.

"Hi John," I said, Fang just nodded in greeting.

"Do you think you could give us a hand?" John asked. Fang and I looked at each other, torn between wanting to spend some time alone and wanting to help out. We chose option two because if we helped now then maybe we could spend some time together later.

"Sure," Fang said. John smiled appreciatively and we helped me take crates from the back of a small car thing into the hut. We stacked them on shelves while John filled us in on what the plans were starting tomorrow.

"Basically, we're just going to be helping out the people in this camp," John said. "We'll fix up people who are sick and teach some of their doctors how to use this stuff."

"Sounds good," I said. I looked at Fang. "You'll be good at that."

Fang shrugged. "I'm only good with minor injuries," he replied.

"You could be good with all kinds," John disagreed. "Maybe you should learn a bit more about medicine from Valencia."

"Maybe…" Fang shrugged again and I smiled slightly. He was always so modest but I knew that now the idea was in his head he might decide to follow through with it. That was my Fang, always wanting to learn new things and get better at stuff.

We finished up with John and left the hut with him, discussing our job here in Africa when I saw a flash of red hair and my heart sank. I'd been in a great mood until just that moment.

"Fang!" a voice cried excitedly and Fang's head snapped up.

Brigid Dwyer, the eighth wonder of the world.

"Oh great, it's Dr Brilliant," I muttered under my breath. Only Fang heard me but he pretended he hadn't as Brigid came over to us, a smile on her face and she hugged Fang. I resisted the urge to mime vomiting. John went off to find my Mum and I almost shouted at him to stay.

"Hi Brigid," Fang said cheerfully. He just couldn't get over how amazing Dr Wonderful is. Stupid jerk. Your _girlfriend_ is standing right here! Remember me? Max? The girl you've been in love with for a while? Ringing any bells?

"It's so great that you're here," Brigid said as she released Fang. She beamed at him and went to speak but I cleared my throat. Brigid looked at me. "Hi Max."

"Hi," I replied sarcastically. Brigid seemed taken aback. "Not to be rude but Fang and I were kind of in the middle of something." I stepped closer to him and took his hand, lacing my fingers through his as a subtle reminder that he was mine and not hers.

"Right, sorry," Brigid said and sent me a slightly irritated look. "I'll talk to you later then. Where's your Mum?"

"In that hut," I replied pointing. Brigid smiled.

"Bye Fang, bye Max," she said and walked off. I mouthed immaturely as she left and then noticed Fang's annoyed look and stopped, giving him a sheepish smile. I wasn't feeling guilty about being mean to Brigid but I didn't like it when Fang looked at me like that- like he was so much more mature and smarter than me.

"When will you be nice to Brigid?" Fang asked. "She is my friend, you know."

"She wants to be more than your friend," I replied. Fang dropped my hand and turned to me with a sly smile and I was immediately suspicious. "What?"

"So, if she stopped thinking that way about me then you'd be nice to her?" he asked me, calling my bluff.

"I'd think about it," I replied, taking a step back from Fang. He stepped with me, still smirking in that stupid sly way of his.

"Would you be nice to her for me?"

"Um… that depends on my motivation." I gave Fang a challenging look as I continued backing away from him. I did not like that look on his face. It was sending little electric tingles down my spine and making me very suspicious.

"Hmmm…"

I took another step and backed into one of the huts and Fang stepped right up to me and put one hand on the wall of the hut next to my head and put his other hand on the other side, trapping me. I swallowed and looked up at Fang.

"I think I know how to make you see my way," Fang said in a low voice that made my knees shake slightly.

"Oh yeah?" I challenged.

"Mmm."

Fang leant down then and kissed my forehead and I closed my eyes and tried to stop my breathing from getting all erratic. Fang trailed his lips across my forehead and then down the side of my face to my jaw. He kissed along my jaw line and paused near my mouth.

"Are you going to be nice to Brigid?" he asked me.

"No, she's… um…" I was trying to remember how to phrase the reason I didn't like Brigid but at the moment I couldn't think of anything but Fang's lips on my skin.

"We'll see," Fang murmured and one of his hands traced down my side to my waist and his other hand moved down to caress my cheek. His lips brushed the corner of my mouth and I opened my eyes and looked into his dark ones for a moment and my whole world felt right as I saw the love and loyalty in Fang's eyes.

"For me?" he asked and I shook my head stubbornly. He sighed and pressed his lips to mine and I wrapped my arms around his neck so that he couldn't escape from me and he pressed me right up against the hut and kissed me with the same fierce passion that I'd come to recognise in him.

Have you ever noticed how passion and hate are often on the same line? Well I have because the way Fang and I kissed reminded me of the same fierceness we had in battle when we were intent on hurting our enemies.

Just a little similarity I picked up on.

One of Fang's hands was on my back, rubbing circles between my wings while his other hand stroked my face. I twisted my hands in his hair as he tilted his head and brushed my lips with his tongue.

I love kissing Fang. If I had a choice, I would spend most of my time making out with him, but unfortunately saving the world and kicking butt were higher up on my 'Things I have to do' list. But on my 'Things I love' list Fang was number one, kissing him was number two, lying in his arms was number three, the flock was four, Mum and Ella were five, hugs were six and I forgot the rest as Fang started kissing down my neck, making me sigh happily.

He pressed his lips into that sensitive place behind my collar bone and I let out a little sigh of pleasure that made him chuckle and bring his mouth back to mine.

"Ahem," a voice coughed and we both jumped and turned to stare at Dr Hans. He looked a little embarrassed and I felt my face flush with mortification. Yeah I've kissed him in front of people. I kissed him goodnight every day before he had to go and sleep in the same room as the boys- Mum and Jeb were being overprotective parents and wouldn't let Fang and I sleep in the same room when they were around, at least they didn't know that he usually snuck into my room during the night. But this was a guy I'd just met and we were just kissing we were sharing a very passionate hot and heavy session… that _was_ just getting started.

Fang shifted guiltily but he honestly didn't look like he felt too bad about it.

"Sorry," Dr Hans said. "I was looking for you though Max. Brigid said you were here."

Fang coughed to hide his laugh and I tried not to scowl. _Of course_ it was Dr Amazing's fault that our happy moment had been disrupted. I needed to kill her. I needed to kill her painfully. Fang was purposefully not looking at my face because he and I both knew that one glance at it would make him crack up.

"What did you want?" I asked, not bothering to try and keep the hostility out of my tone.

"I wanted to thankyou for coming to help us out here," Dr Hans said. "This job means a lot to me."

"Why?" Fang asked, genuine curiosity lighting his tone. I knew I was the only one who could tell though.

"I'm a rich man, Fang," Dr Hans said. "I'm a very rich scientist who cares about this planet and wants to help his fellow man."

"Oh," Fang said and looked over at me. His eyes said 'something's up' and I inclined my head ever-so-slightly to agree with him. This man's extreme generosity had me wondering.

"We're glad to help," I lied smoothly.

"Now, I need to go and supervise some more unpacking." Dr Hans shifted awkwardly. "I'll let you two… get back to… uh… what you were doing."

Fang and I tried not to snicker as Dr Hans walked away, we really tried, but the awkwardness of adults around teenagers in relationships was hilarious. Jeb was even funnier around us. Fang and I tried to be as couple-like as possible around our adopted-father-turned-bad-guy-turned-good-guy-we-don't-trust as we could because it really annoyed him. He keeps trying to be my father and he got all protective when he found out about me and Fang but I know that there isn't anyone else he'd rather me be with. Same goes for Mum.

"Now," Fang said, stepping back to me and smiling. "Where was I?"

"Here," I replied, tapping my lips with my index finger.

Fang put his hands on my waist and was about to kiss me again when a scream broke the air and we both whipped around and stared. A woman with the darkest skin I have ever seen in my life was running towards us, shouting something in a language that I didn't understand.

"What's going on?" I heard voices saying.

"Let's check it out," I said to Fang and he nodded. Both of us took running steps and we both jumped into the air, snapping our wings out and pushing down to rise up into the air. Fang swooped across and scanned the ground. I looked back and saw the rest of the flock in the air and coming towards us.

"There!" Fang shouted and I looked where he was pointing. A group- would you call it a herd?- of elephants were running, trumpeting loudly. But what were they running from was the question?

"I hear gunshots!" Iggy called. "Twelve degrees east!"

None of us doubted him so we all tilted our wings and flew to where Iggy heard the gunshots. Angel was frowning in concentration and I scanned the ground worriedly. There. More people on camels pointing guns up in the air.

"They want to kill us!" Angel informed us. "It's their job!"

"Okay guys, evasion tactics! Let's take 'em out and find out who they're working for!" I ordered and the flock tensed up and prepared for battle. Sometimes my kids just cracked me up. They were so cute sometimes.

Fang pulled his wings in and dropped about twenty feet, pulling out in a barrel roll and kicking one guy clean off his camel. The rest of us followed his lead, dodging bullets. I zoomed around a couple of the guys- there were about ten of them, same as last time- and whacked one with my wing. He was so surprised that he dropped his gun and his steed trampled it, setting it off making all of the camels panic. Half of the riders were thrown off and I had a few seconds to laugh my head of before a bullet zoomed by my ear.

I ducked down and landed both my feet into one guy's chest, sending him flying and Fang round-house kicked the guy who'd shot at me. Fang's face was a little scary and all for little ol' me. I felt so loved.

In about fifteen minutes we had all the guys off their camels and Iggy produced some rope- where the hell did he get it?- and Fang, Iggy and I tied them together while Gazzy gathered up their guns and put them in a pile. One look from me made him back away from them and not touch them again.

"Who hired you?" I asked one of the four guys who was still conscious.

"Like I'll tell you," he replied.

I was surprised to find that all of these guys were human. Fang and I exchanged a worried look and then he leant down and the guy breathed in sharply at the look on Fang's face. Nobody is scarier than Fang when he wants to be. He just looks so dark and badass. But I know otherwise. And that's one of the reasons that I love him so much.

"Tell us," Fang ordered.

"We don't know, okay?" one guy said.

I heard people coming towards us and took a moment to glance up at the group of people coming.

"Nudge, Angel, Gazzy, keep them over there for a moment," I said and returned my attention to the guys who'd tried to kill my family. "Why not?"

"We're only sent our money and orders by a messenger, we have no idea who we're working for," another guy explained.

"Surely he must have some kind of identity among you," Fang said.

"He asked us to refer to him as Mr K," the first guy I'd threatened replied. I looked at Fang and he nodded. We'd have to ask Jeb when we got a chance. He was around her somewhere.

"Max, Fang, Iggy!"

Speak of the devil and the devil shall appear.

Jeb, Mum, John, Brigid, Dr Hans and a group of other people were coming towards us with Nudge, Angel and Gazzy. Fang, Iggy and I backed away from our prisoners and looked at them.

"Are you all okay?" Mum asked, patting the three of us down for injuries and looking us over.

"We're fine," I promised.

"Where are they?" Total growled, coming through the crowd. "I'll tear 'em up for threatening my flock."

"_Your_ flock?" I demanded but any answer from Total was cut off by Jeb.

"We'll take them into the camp for questioning," he decided and Dr Hans snapped his fingers. Several African guys who were super-tall and super-strong-looking came and gestured to others. They each took a couple of the guys and carried them towards our camp.

"What happened?" Jeb asked and I looked at Fang who shook his head and shifted his gaze to Dr Hans.

"Nothing," I replied but gave Jeb a meaningful look. He got it and when the group was walking back, he and Mum hung back with the flock and he looked at me.

"Alright, what is it?" he asked.

"Do you know the name Mr K?" Fang asked. Jeb shook his head.

"No, sorry," he replied. "Is that who they were working for?"

"They said it's his alias," I explained.

"Right." Jeb frowned. "Don't worry kids, I'll find out who sent them after you."

"That's right," Mum said. "Don't worry, okay?"

"I'll try," I said and Fang gave me a doubtful look.

"They really didn't know," Angel murmured from beside me. "They're just as confused as we are. Maybe I should question them."

"No!" Jeb, Mum, Fang and I said in unison and Angel folded her arms, looking mutinous but she didn't argue as we walked back into camp. We started heading to our huts to clean up because we were covered in blood.

As we went in, I looked at Fang. He gave me a disappointed look that I mimicked.

So much for our alone time.


End file.
